Five essentials the Destiny ran out of
by Shenandoah Risu
Summary: Most of the time she simply has to cut her losses.


**Title: Five essentials the Destiny ran out of  
Author: Shenandoah Risu  
Rating**: G  
**Content Flags**: none  
**Spoilers**: none  
**Characters**: Destiny  
**Word Count**: 700  
**Summary**: _Most of the time she simply has to cut her losses.  
_**Author's Notes**: Written for the LJ Comm sg1_five_things, prompt set #121.  
**Disclaimer**: I don't own SGU. I wouldn't know what to do with it. Now, Young... Young I'd know what to do with. ;-)  
**Thanks for reading! Feedback = Love. ;-) **

**oOo**

**Five essentials the _Destiny _ran out of**

Hydrogen

She's not too terribly concerned about this one. She knows when she's about to run out of fuel, so she times her FTL jumps to drop out near a star and she takes a dip and scoops up some more. She feels the tiniest bit of guilt, yes, because each time she does this one star will lose a second of its lifetime. While this isn't much in the grand scheme of things, altogether she's taken out an entire small star on her journey. She's like the Forefathers of the Ancestors who migrated across their home planet, and instead of trying to take everything with them they resupplied en route – water, firewood, food. Those items mean nothing to her, but her historical records make the analogy, and it makes sense to her. She's not a creature of flesh and blood like they were but in every other way that matters she is exactly like them. She is a pioneer. She is their child.

Calcium carbonate

Actually, there is a considerable amount of it in one of her storage rooms. She has no need to maintain a breathable atmosphere on her journey; in fact, many of her systems work better and more reliably in a vacuum – no corroding substances of any kind. She makes sure there is a small amount of breathable gas around the Gate, for when they arrive they will know where to go and what to do. As long as the bots can do this minor bit of maintenance, she is prepared for their arrival at any time.

Energy buffers

Her records indicate that the buffers around the Gate should work indefinitely, but that estimate did not consider the countless attempts of the Hunters to dial into her address. Dialing her Gate uses up a considerable amount of energy, which isn't really a problem, but the moment she can identify an unauthorized dial-in she shuts it down. Her engineers did not foresee that possibility, and by now the buffers are suffering from charging fatigue syndrome. While her crew can still dial in at any time with the correct code they will no longer be able to dial out – back home. Unfortunately, not even the Seed Ships that precede her have the necessary materials on board to fashion new buffers.

Repair bots

She recently lost her last functional repair bot – the ships that have pursued her for so long have managed to catch it outside her shields and shot it. There are many more bots in a storage facility on the lower decks, but they are devoid of programming – in anticipation of her future crew's needs. From now on anything she loses in battle with her hunters can no longer be repaired. Every day she works on re-routing systems away from her hull and into the more protected areas of her core, to minimize the impact of weapons fire. She locks down areas that are damaged to avoid losing more precious resources and materials. Things are getting difficult to repair now – most of the time she simply has to cut her losses.

Independence

They have taken away her independence. It took them far less time than she thought to crack the master code and access her higher functions. They control much of what she does now, they make the decisions, they tell her where to go and what to do.

She was not prepared for the pain this loss would cause her.

She was even less prepared for how much they have given her in return since their arrival. They have made a home for themselves inside of her, they make repairs, they fix broken systems. They are not here by choice, they are not the crew she was prepared for, but they have embraced her mission just the same. It took time before she shared with them what she knows.

She is no longer alone.

It was time to give up her loneliness, her single-minded goal, her independence. She is a member of their team now, and she finally begins to understand what her builders truly wanted her to be, what they'd hoped she would become.

She finally belongs.

**oOo**

**oOo**

**Thanks for reading! A comment or feedback would be much appreciated.**


End file.
